1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to communicating information to the user of an appliance, and more specifically to a user interface for household appliance through which information may be communicated.
2. Description of the Related Art
Household appliances, such as clothes washers and dryers, utilize user interfaces to enable a user of the appliance to control the operation of the appliance. The user interface typically includes a controller, which may comprise a microprocessor, memory, and associated circuitry, and a panel adapted to accommodate selection devices such as knobs, switches, push buttons, and the like. The selection devices are utilized to select operating modes, such as predefined wash and dry cycles, and options which can be selected for specific operating modes. Illustrative washing modes commonly include normal wash, heavy duty, delicate, for example. Illustrative drying modes commonly include normal dry, permanent press, air dry, for example. Illustrative options for clothes washers commonly include water temperature, spin speed, soil level, extra rinse, pre-wash, and the like. Illustrative options for dryers commonly include drying temperature, drying time, dryness level, and the like.
In a typical household washer and dryer, the available options may vary depending on the selected mode. For example, if the operating mode selected for a clothes washer is a delicate washing cycle, the available water temperature options may be limited to “cold” and “warm,” with “hot” unavailable for selection. Some current clothes washers may indicate which of the options has been selected, e.g. “cold,” but not that “warm” is also available and that “hot” is unavailable. Thus, a user wishing to change the water temperature for the selected operating mode must select, in turn, each of the temperature options to determine which of the temperature options is available and can be selected. Other current washers may indicate all available options but stop indicating the available options upon the selection of one option by the user. Thus, if a user wants to change the selected option, they no longer have an indication of which options are available and must go from memory or by trial and error. In some cases they must restart the cycle. Furthermore, once the start of the selected operating mode has been initiated, current clothes washers and dryers do not inform the user whether further changes to the options are available.